CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Board of Education is urging the state to stabilize the Public Employees Insurance Agency situation.
The board voted unanimously Monday afternoon to approve the resolution regarding PEIA’s recent plans for increases.
PEIA, which serves the main form of insurance for Kanawha County educators, recently proposed a plan that could see increases of up to 40% for deductibles, and premium increases of 14% for the state fund or 16% in plans for local governments.
Dinah Adkins, the Kanawha County Education Association President, says these increases will drive teachers away from an area that has already seen population and enrollment decreases recently.”
These increases up to 14% for premiums, up to 40% for co-pays and medication and out of pocket expenses for therapy are really going to take a toll on your employees,” Adkins said Monday. “It’s going to be another way to keep good teachers from coming to West Virginia and Kanawha County. This is a statewide effort, it’s not just Kanawha County.”
Adkins says there is no easy fix, but there should be stabilization.
“Right now, we don’t see a fix in the future, but we see some way to stabilize it if we can get the state to agree and the legislatures,” Adkins said. “This was promised in leu of pay raises. It was promised during the walkout. It’s been promised and promised and promised.”
Board member Tracy White says any pay increases that have come to state employees in recent years will be for naught if these increases go through.
“We can pat ourselves on the back up all we want up under the gold dome for giving raises to state employees, but when you take it all away and then some, then we really haven’t given them anything,” White said.
Adkins says any help would be appreciated given the current outlook for public employees in West Virginia.
“With PEIA increases, and West Virginia being, what they’re calling now, 51st in the nation in pay, we’re not even 50th, we’re below that, we really support anything you can do and appreciate you can do to work with us,” Adkins said.